LONG BEFORE THERE WAS JACK BAUER, THERE WAS TEDDY HOFFMAN: I've been waiting for this for so long, I can hardly believe it's true. The first season of Steven Bochco's Murder One is now out on DVD, a mere ten years after the show initially premiered.
The concept: 15-year-old Jessica Costello, the troubled girlfriend of movie star Neil Avedon, is strangled to death. Avedon is charged with murder, and hires superstar defense attorney Ted Hoffman to defend him. Nothing is as it seems, and much of the confusion revolves around the potential involvement of bazillionaire Richard Cross, another Hoffman client with connections to the murder victim.
At the time, Murder One had a few big strikes against it, not the least of which was unfortunate scheduling (it went up against ER in ER's second season, back when it was can't-miss appointment TV). The central conceit -- follow a single murder trial over the course of a season -- was perhaps a bit ahead of its time. I'm not sure the world would have been ready for Jack Bauer in 1995, much less a way-subtle, way-understated, way-riveting performance by Daniel Benzali as the central defense attorney Ted Hoffman.
What Murder One has are some seriously wow-level performances. First and foremost, Stanley Tucci is monumentally good as is-he-the-villain-or-isn't-he Richard Cross. Add in Barbara Bosson (then Bochco's wife) as the DA prosecuting the case, Patricia Clarkson as Teddy's long-suffering wife, Jason Gedrick as the actor-turned-defendant, and so on. (Mary McCormack also appears as one of Teddy's associates, although I seem to recall that her performance aggravated me.)
Where the show ultimately lost a bit of its footing was in the attempt to find something for Teddy's various associates to do when they weren't jockeying for position to second-chair the Avedon trial. The associates' other cases tended to be a bit silly and underwritten compared to the central Avedon story. But this is a relatively modest gripe about a show that is a whole lot of fun to watch.
In a summer where the choices seem to be (1) see D-level "stars" learn to dance, (2) watch has-been musicians try to become will-be musicians, and (3) wonder how in the world Brad and Eric ever got cast as geeks in a world that contains unsalvageable wack-job Richard, there are far, far worse things you can do than spend 23 hours watching Murder One. My DVDs arrive on Wednesday.
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